Light The Fuse

Light the Fuse, by Vincent Vargas.  While his stories revolve around his experiences in the Army, as he puts it, they aren’t only “veteran issues,” instead they are “humanity issues.” Yes: Anyone from any walk of life can learn from what Vince has written. This is proven in some of his commentary, which translates perfectly from the military to the civilian world. He talks about “identifying that you are the threat,” and that you need to “initiate self-rescue.” Clearly, those are military terms, but they make obvious sense no matter what a person’s vocation is: You are the problem, so FIX IT. There is also a section where Vince breaks down the “Five Stages of the Veteran Transition Evolution.” Of course, Vince states that “not all veterans go through all of these,” and he is right. My transition from the military was different from what Vince went through and what he writes about in this book. But I did see many veterans I know go through something similar to what Vince describes. Unfortunately, they did not know what was happening—they did not recognize the storm that surrounded them. But how could they recognize it if they had not seen it before? Again, that is one of the most valuable things about Vince’s book: it provides perspective. So, while Vince’s description might not match exactly what any specific veteran goes through, just seeing his perspective can give a veteran, or anyone going through a major transition in life, some frame of reference, some guidance of what a person might run into, so they can avoid some of the pitfalls and get on the right path. The book is also entertaining: “My body-type is the kind where you can tell I work out here and there, but I also never said no to a taco.” He also describes the most “intimate moment in his life,” occurring not in a bedroom, but in a cellblock when he was working as a prison guard and was the member of a team assigned to get control of an unruly prisoner serving a life sentence for murder. Vince had to get control of him, not with a gun or a nonlethal weapon, but with good old-fashioned fisticuffs. While Vince did defend himself and get the upper hand, it was a level of vulnerability that Vince had never dealt with. And that is what this book is: a combination of vulnerability and good, old-fashioned fisticuffs—it is a scrap. It is a fight to get on the right path. To get to the other side. A fight to be better. Light the Fuse by Vince “Rocco” Vargas isn’t going to make you into a perfect person. It isn’t going to solve your problems for you. But it can guide you. It can show you some mistakes ...